It’s been about 5-6 weeks since I set up a bunch of my bills on an automatic payment schedule.  For the longest time, I was simply sitting down every payday and running through what bills I could pay.  The system was totally prone to late payments and additional fees.  I still log on every couple of days and check accounts across the board, but it’s so nice to get statements in the mail only to check the account and see that a payment is already scheduled for it.  I have the budget buffer concept to thank for this.  Without it I’d still be living paycheck to paycheck.

The only real work that I’ve got now as far as writing bills is to watch the medical statements (we got an awful lot of those, maybe 5-6 per month from the various doctors/clinics) and make sure they get paid.  I’m horrible about getting them mixed up and thinking I paid them all when I actually missed one.

Even though it’s all automated, I’m still highlighting my numbers in blue on my budget spreadsheet every time I make a payment or see an automatic one go through.  I like to see my entire column turn blue before the next pay-period or I get nervous.

I’ll be providing daily progress numbers again soon now that we’re finally getting comfortable with our envelope budgeting system.  For the most part, we’ve only paid minimums and applied the rest toward our account…so not much for debt reduction the last week.